gain in popularity. >> i think it will. sam stein, "huffington post," good to have you with us. that's "the ed show." i'm ed shultz. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, thank you, my friend. thank you for stays with us. whatever post election lull we could count on, the lull has been cancelled this year. new reporting tonight about the scandal that has forced general petraeus out of government, out as head of the cia, and there are a ton of questions. and even though president obama's reelection was settled at about 11:15 p.m. eastern last tuesday, the election overall is still underway in some parts of the country, including one place where it appears to have mostly just broken down with a bunch of federal level races still undecided. and the state in question is not florida for once.

important updates coming up there including what may be a deconcession by a democrat who previously thought he had lost in a big important u.s. senate race. that's all ahead. but we have to begin with breaking news out of washington. "the washington post" is reporting tonight that president obama is considering massachusetts senator john kerry as his new secretary of defense. that's right, defense. putting the decorated veteran and former presidential candidate in charge at the pentagon and not at the state department, as had been widely speculated. "the washington post" is sourcing its reporting to unnamed senior administration officials. senator kerry is also not commenting tonight. if senator kerry does move to the cabinet for defense or any other post, there will be an immediate political question for the democrats as to what happens to his u.s. senate seat in massachusetts.

senator kerry had mostly been talked about as a potential replacement for secretary of state hillary clinton. the post reporting tonight that that nomination for secretary of state is instead almost certain to go to united nations ambassador susan rice. republicans tried to make into a scandal susan rice's comments after the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. her comments that the attack was thought to be linked to islamist protests rather than an organized terrorist attack. but the administration and the intelligence committee have stepped up to defend her remarks that sunday. and if she is tapped by president obama to replace secretary clinton as secretary of state that would imply that the president is willing to keep backing susan rice up all the way. the current defense secretary is leon panetta. he used to run the cia where he was succeeded by general petraeus. now that seat is also available. the same administration sources

talking to "the post" also tell ing that the job is his. the job has made his desire to leave public service, but if he does reconsider, apparently the cia chief job should be his. if mr. brennan decides he does not want the job, the current acting director michael morell looks likely to keep the job. we'll have more on the questions surrounding the petraeus scandal and his abrupt departure later on in the show with a reporter who broke the story, andrea mitchell. beyond the shape of president obama's second term administration and who is in his cabinet, we now know that president obama has scheduled a major meeting for tomorrow in washington with labor leaders. that will be on tuesday and then on wednesday the president is going to be meeting with a lot of ceos and business leaders.

the world of big business in some ways large and small chose mitt romney over president obama during this election season. they made their choice early and loudly and publicly and put a ton of money behind mr. romney. it did not work. their guy did not win. president obama got reelected any way. there presumably is some sort of reckoning from that. if not a reckoning, at least a turn of the page. the white house is signaling that the president wants to enlist business leaders in his effort to end bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000. an effort they might get something in return for. the white house characterizing their plans as a deal that would help bring down the deficit, but without destroying the economic recovery and the middle class along with it. should not come as a surprise that president obama is pushing hard on ending the bush tax cuts for income over $250,000.

that's probably been the president's most consistent, most repeated promise on policy. here's what he said about the bush tax cuts on high income right as he was agreeing to extend the tax cuts back in 2010. >> i'm as opposed to the high end tax cuts today as i have been for years. in the long run, we simply can't afford them. when they expire in two years, i will fight to end them. >> eep as he was agreeing to extend the tax cuts that time, he was promising right there he would not do it again. in april of last year, he went one step further. he issued an ultimatum. >> in december i agreed to extend the tax cuts for wealthiest americans because it was the only way to prevent a tax hike on middle class americans. but we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. e we can't afford it. i refuse to renew them again.

>> the president in april saying he will refuse to renew the bush tax cuts for the highest levels of income again. this has not been a secret. during election season shs the president campaigned on ending the tax cuts for the the wealthy in tv ads and on the stump in every speech. it was a central pillar of his campaign message. after he won reelection on tuesday, in his first public comments after election night, the president thing the president said is that he was going to end those tax cuts on high income. >> i am not going to ask students and seniors and middle-class families to pay down the entire deficit while people like me making over $250,000 aren't asked to pay a dime more in taxes. i'm not going to do that. >> now just in case it wasn't clear enough, the obama administration is floating the idea that the president may barn storm the country in support of this idea that he has been

declaring since 2010. but it's not clear he needs to. republicans are caving in small ways. at least starting to cave. at least thinking about caving. at least the possibility of caving. and if the republicans don't cave, the republicans and democrats have the option of letting all the tax cuts expire. that's what's set to happen automatically. they can always fix it before the end of the tax year. so what else is in the realm of possibility right now for the democrats? i mean, don't forget the president's meeting with labor leaders tomorrow. that happens before he makes his case to the ceo. here's what's on richard trumka's mind. he has been reminding the press that in ohio, afl-cio members are 83% white, 53% of them own guns and they voted 70% for barack obama.

labor knows exactly how important it was to the president's reelection effort particularly in the swing states. what about labor law reforms? what about making the marketplace more attractive to unions and union membership? mitt romney ran as if the president had put in place big sweeping labor law changes, but the obama administration didn't affect midge change in the first term. there's lots of things left on the labor agenda like a bill to make it easier for unions to get recognized and harder for companies to block unions from forming. could it be in the realm of possibility in the second term obama administration? or yesterday when the president spoke at arlington national cemetery, he touched on something that should be in the realm of possibility. the month's long backlog that our new veterans are facing when they try to access the benefits they have earned when they get home from war. >> no veteran should have to wait months or years for the benefits that you have earned so

we will continue to attack the claims backlog. we won't let up. we will not let up. >> that claims backlog is actually a disaster. and it's getting worse and it needs to be fixed. it's a specific problem that cannot be allowed to continue if we are to make good on the promises we have made to people who have fought in our name. if the v.a. secretary cannot get it done as head of the v.a., then probably the president needs to find a new v.a. secretary. fixing the the backlog is something that needs to be in the realm of possibility for the obama administration. later on in the show, we'll be talking about how and where the actual election is still happening. where the election is still a great big chaotic mess. now members of congress are proposing election reform at the federal level. uniform rules for early voting across the country sto make it so we don't have partisan administration in charge of elections. real election reform could be in

the possibility for democrats if they choose to work on that. or on the sunday shows, republicans started to sound a little more conciliatory towards immigration reform with lindsey graham saying "we have nobody to blame but ourselves when it comes to losing hispanics. i intend to tear this wall down and pass an immigration reform bill that's a solution to an american problem." softening towards immigration reform is even happening among some fox news channel personalities. of course, not on fox news channel, but on the radio shows. but still, it's happening. so immigration reform may be more within the realm of possibility in the near term than it has been for a long time. last week on thursday, two days after the election, mark kelly,

the husband of gabrielle giffords made a statement at the sentencing hearing of the man who shot her and 18 other people outside a tucson supermarket. it included a poignant call for a restoration to sanity on gun policy in this country for at least a return to what used to be the gun laws in america "we have a political class afraid to do something as simple as having meaningful debate about gun laws and how they are being enforced. we have passed up the opportunity to address this issue. after columbine, virginia tech, aurora, we have done nothing. in this state, we have elected officials so feckless in their leadership that they would say, as in the case of governor jan brewer, i don't think it has anything to do with the size of the gun. even if the shooter's weapon had held fewer bullets, he would have had another gun. she said this just one week after a high capacity magazine allowed you to kill six and wound 19 others before being wrestled to the ground while attempting to reload."

he said that to the face of the man who shot his wife. so everyone says that gun law reform isn't possible. but maybe at least fixing the assault weapons ban that used to be a consensus piece of legislation, maybe that could be in the realm of possibilities for the second obama administration term. on friday we found out that jay inslee won the race. what's he most known for up until this point? clean energy and bio tech. he's governor of washington state. today andrew cuomo came out and said he will be asking for $30 billion for new york state in storm relief. that money would be in part to shore up new york's infrastructure so it can withstand storms of increased frequency and increased severity due to climate change. so while the new governor of washington will be out fighting climate change, the governor of new york is asking for money to make us more resilient to damage from climate change. maybe even climate change

heading off further climate change, maybe that could be in the realm of possibility for a second term. what about the things that we know the president wanted to accomplish in his first term? he wanted to get done in his first term and didn't do. what about closing guantanamo? remember when that was the plan? maybe that's back in the realm of possibilities. let's go out on a wild hair. what about ending the war in afghanistan ahead of schedule? could a second obama term see the war ending earlier? what's within the realm of possibility now? what can democrats achieve now that they could not have achieved before say last tuesday? they can't run the table. there are still republicans in washington and the republicans still do control the house. the world is not the democrat's oyster, but ask the republicans. it's at least getting clam my.

democrats can't do anything they want, but they have an opportunity to recast the realm of what's possible. joining us is the u.s. senator from minnesota who was just elected. it's great to have you here. 35 points, congratulations. >> there you go. i went to every town. i even went to a town with four people. but i met a guy. >> did you follow them home? >> i think when you talk about everything, very focused on i love that you talk about things beyond just the immediate that we can do to get this economy moving again. i do think the the idea of getting out there with the people, the people got engaged in this election. the message was balanced. there's no doubt about it. when you look at the races,

heidi heitkamp winning, they rejected a lot of rigid ideology. they said let's get problem solvers to get something done. and i couldn't agree with you more on what we're hearing on the republican side. conservative commentator bill crystal saying this weekend that we should look at it's not going to kill the country to look at raising some of the taxes on millionaires and that we could look at -- he suggested that the republican party should take president obama up on his offer. you have speaker boehner saying, let's get compromise. this is the time to bring that debt down. we seriously have to do it. i don't think anyone disputes that, but it has to be a mix of spending cuts and the revenue. and the one figure that i'd like to add here is how much revenue we get by just going back to the clinton levels at $250,000 and above. that's $700 billion in tenures. that's what draws people to that number when you add that in and then close some loopholes and subsidies and do the budget cuts, we have already done a trillion. you can get to the $4 trillion that most economists say would at least lead us to the path to

reduce debt over ten years. >> because it is so much money and because it would be so relatively painless for people who have income above $250,000 to see that change go back, because bill crystal is saying this now, because the president is clear that's what he's running on, it feels that's clear that's within the realm of the possible. but what else didn't previously peel like it was in the realm of possible? >> i think immigration reform. i called a number of the republican senators who won this time and two of them brought up immigration reform. this was before the election. these were people we knew were going to win. you saw senator graham working on a proposal. the dream act was close to begin with. but when you look back to george bush, he was trying to get immigration reform done in his last two years, but it was the

first time of the pushback from talk radio. now you have hispanics 10% of the electorate. you have, as was pointed out this weekend, 75% of them voted for president obama. so the republicans have a little outreach to do. and i'd suggest one way instead of just giving speeches is work with us on immigration reform. >> from your advantage point as a democrat who has been cross aisle oriented, what happens within the republican party between those republican senators and who they see as constituents on an issue like that? he's secretary of state in kansas. he's there. and that's an active and vocal faction in the republican party. how do they lose the debate if they need to lose the debate for republicans to survive? >> the business community can play a major role. we have major businesses that

want to see immigration reform. they look at their employee base. they look at the possibility of the reform and what it would mean with earned citizenship. that's a group that they will listen to. and then you just have what happened to them in this election. people that were just adhering to these rigid ideologies. we got some democrats in there that were problem solvers. i think that sends a message as well. other possibility would be energy reform. there are some great possibilities there when you look at our competitiveness internationally. i always like the renewable electricity standard. governor pawlenty signed off on 25% by 2025. that's one way. finally in minnesota where we have a lot of manufacturing, you're seeing this resurgence of made-in-america products. we need to train workers and students in areas where there are jobs. that means traditional jobs like welding and it means science and

engineering. a nationwide focus on getting kids to go to those areas. it has to be something that everyone will agree ongoing forward. >> the things you talk about have no ideological edge to them. let me ask you one last thing. scott brown is replaced by elizabeth warren. olympia snowe replaced by an independent. herb cole replaced by tammy baldwin. the pattern in all of those is that it's a more conservative person in the senate replaced by a less conservative person in the senate. maybe fine lines, but that's the pattern in all of them. is one of the kons chemical weapons that democrats might reform the filibuster? >> i hope so. two ideas i'd throw out there. to get rid of it on the motion to proceed. that would reduce everything in half the time we spend on bills. the second, require these people

to stand and speak. make them stand and speak. you could have a filibuster clock on your show. it would be mesmerizing. not really actually. people would hate it. they would hate that two people would hold up one judge in illinois. that's what we're seeing. if those senators are held accountable by making them actually stand and filibuster, it would make a difference. the american people will see it. there could be other reforms as well. i put those out there as doable and something that could make a huge difference. >> and make the senate not function on a super majority basis. >> dysfunction junction. >> exactly right. >> the train is leaving the station. we're ready to go. >> we'll try to clear the tracks. thank you for being here. do you remember when general david petraeus could have been a viable presidential candidate? that was thursday. now it's monday. now there's a lot of new reporting about the scandal which has ended his career and there are a lot of remaining questions. we'll be talking with a reporter who first broke the story. stay tuned.

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and leaves carpets fresh. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. you are not allowed to cheat on your beloved. if you are married, you are not allowed by law if you are in the military. under article 132, the code of military justice, having an affair is illegal. the maximum punishment is dishonorable discharge and confinement for one year. how is that for a cold shower? you could go to jail for a year for cheating on your husband or wife if you're in the military.

even though the cia acts like it's the military, it doesn't play by the same rules. in the cia it's not illegal to have an affair. you can have one without going to jail, but honestly, the cia rules might take all the fun out of if. if you want to have an affair without getting fired for it, you have to tell your boss that you're doing it and you have to tell your spouse, which probably makes it less of an affair and more just the thing that happens right before you get divorced. even with the rules, you can't have an affair with a foreigner no matter who you tell. there are still many unanswered questions regarding the resignation of cia director general david petraeus. if his affair was not a criminal matter, it happened at the cia, so it was not a criminal matter, and the fbi investigation that

turned up evidence of this affair turned up no evidence of breaching classified information, then why did the affair itself get reported to the director of national intelligence and then the security staff at the white house and ultimately the president? this was private misbehavior that was a breach of personnel rules, but not the law. is the fbi the armed wing of the ci acres human resources department? why did the fbi report the affair to anyone. there was no classified information breached here. no reported breach of david petraeus's systems. any e-mail was not his cia e-mail. it was not like the former director who got busted taking home classified information on his home laptop. so this was not a national security matter. and it was not a criminal matter. so why was this brought up to the director of national intelligence by the fbi. we do not know. what we do know is once james clapper, head of the national intelligence, found out about the affair on election day, he

urged david petraeus to resign. the following day, wednesday, mr. clapper reportedly notified staff at the white house and the following day, thursday, general petraeus sat down with president obama directly. the president did not accept his resignation initially that day. he didn't accept it until the following day, until friday. that's when it all became public. here's another question, though. why did the fbi investigation start here in the first place? what we're told about why it started is a woman who was not having an affair, she received e-mails that she perceived as threatening and that woman who received the threatening e-mails happened to have a friend in the fbi to whom she complained about the threatening e-mails and that friend of hers started this investigation that ultimately uncovered the affair involving david petraeus. that's such a strange way for

all of this to begin, right? i mean, do you call the fbi if you get a creepy e e-mail? if i called the fbi every time, they would need to set up a bureau here at 30 rock. here's another question. in spite of the conspiracy theories this was designed to undercut general petraeus before he testified on thursday about benghazi, this was a democratic plot to protect the president from hard questions and now even after the election. in light of those conspiracy theories which are being portrayed as fact on the right, how are we supposed to make light of the fact that two republican congressmen were apparently read in on this investigation by the fbi ahead of the white house and ahead of it going through more official channels. if this weren't the krerkt director of the cia this would not be an important story at all. but because each new detail takes the story in a new

direction and every civilian involved in the case has hired high profile lawyers and because there's so many unanswered questions, this story rivals anything else going on in the country right now. the reporter who broke the story nationally joins us next.

one of the strange things in this very strange story about the former director of the ci a david petraeus, the parts of our government that are supposed to know everything that happens at the cia, the parts of our government that oversee intelligence seem to be largely out of the loop on this story.

that was brought into sharp relief live on nbc when andrea mitchell was the first to break the story. she had the chair of the senate intelligence committee. in the course of asking that chair a question, andrea apparently broke yet further news that the head of the intelligence committee had never heard before that moment on andrea's show. >> the fbi agent who had initially been contacted by this woman who was a friend of the petraeus family, this fbi agent who knew her so he went to him, as far as our reporting is concern, she went to him to ask for help. she was getting e-mails that were of concern to her e. this is jill kelley, whose husband and the petraeus's had been friends for more than five years. >> we were not told this. this is the first time i have learned of this. so that makes me think, how many other things are there too? >> joining us now is andrea

mitchell, the host of "andrea mitchell." >> the interesting thing about that was that that made the point that diane feinstein wanted to make today is that the fbi is not sharing with the people they are supposed to share with. you have a republican house chairman and a democratic senate chairman both saying they are not being properly briefed. and for months at a time. >> i understand the basic idea that intelligence matters need to be overseen aggressively by congress and that congress needs to be more aggressive than they have been. they have powers to do things confidently in ways that other parts of congress don't have because intelligence can be so sensitive. i don't necessarily understand why private marital infidelity would become a matter of national significance that congress needed to be briefed on.

is that a clear line for you? >> that's the fbi's point. once they knew this was just a private matter. but the point that feinstein made today is that there were stages along the way where this was considered a national security breach. where initially, they thought the director's e-mails had been hacked into and someone was trying to e-mail pretengd to be him and also his personal schedule, which is classified, had been released because of the harassing e-mails to jill kelley included e-mails that describe david petraeus's comings and goings, things not on the official schedule. so there were concerns. there was the possibility that some foreign governments could also be getting into the e-mail accounts. so there were stages along the way, at least according to the concerns on the hill, that could involve national security. as long as they were taking

months and months to determine that this should be shut down and there's no criminal aspect to it, they think they should have been notified. and also not incidentally, you have a sub cabinet change in the head of the cia. this led to a resignation and now they have to deal with the fallout from that. >> trying to figure out the timing is one of the things that has changed in the last few days as we have learned more about what david petraeus knew and when he knew it. he knew he had the affair, but if he was interviewed by the fbi at the end of october about this, then he obviously knew it had become known. he did not resign because other people knew he had done a dishonorable thing. he didn't resign when he had the affair. he waited until it was brought to the attention of the white house. which somewhat changes the explanation. >> i think that initially he did not realize what the damage was. how much china had been broken.

after he was interviewed, it's my understanding he left for his final secret mission. didn't realize at the time it was his last mission, but he was preparing to have to testify for the closed hearings on thursday. so he went to libya. he went and debriefed the cia station chief in benghazi. he was preparing himself with a country trip report. and one of the other complaints of feinstein is that she's been told that there is a written report from that briefing that she even hadn't been told that there was such a report. the cia then said, no, there wasn't. there's no final report. she's preparing for the hearings. it's a long inquiry with closed and open hearings. it's not just one hearing. and she's asking what is the petraeus conclusion and she's being told we really don't have that written report. so there's a lot of distress now on the hill with the kind of cooperation they are getting

from the cia and from the wh there are cabinet changes afoot, as you know. a lot of talk tonight about what's going to happen in the rest of the national security team. leon panetta was asked about this for the first time on a trip to australia. they are still en route, but we have been briefed by the traveling pool with him saying there are legitimate questions that need to be asked. he says as the immediate predecessor to petraeus, he believed that congress needed to be better informed. he came down on the side of congress on this. he also acknowledged that there are questions about just when the relationship began. the romantic relationship. if it began before he left the military, it's an entirely different issue. the military code does have a different standard regarding infidelity than does the civilian. >> in terms of the reporting from "the washington post" tonight, john kerry is being

considered for defense secretary and susan rice being considered for secretary of state. does that comport with what you're saying? >> can you see all these balloons being floated? i'm surrounded. it's like being at a convention. all these balloons coming up. yes and yes. john kerry has long, i think, wanted to be secretary of state. and that's not a secret in washington. and he is many people believe superbly qualified. by my reporting, some prefer to have susan rice. but according to democrats, she's been badly damaged by the benghazi situation and needs to go through the process. they are not sure she could be confirmed. so the floating of john kerry for defense would perhaps clear the way or ease the way for susan rice to get confirmed for state. but it's not clear that it will work. >> andrea mitchell, i could talk

to you all night tonight. there's so much going on. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> her show is at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. i'm telling you, must-see tv. turns out the election isn't over. stay tuned for that. including the music and everything. that's coming up next. progressive makes it easy, because we give you choices. you can pick where to get your car fixed, we can cut you a check, or, at our service center, we take care of everything for you. sorry. it turns out the election is not over, seriously. and not for a good reason. still exciting to hear the music. the story is coming up. egular gy with an irregular heartbeat.

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one more time. ♪ >> i play this at home sometimes. over the weekend, the 2012 presidential election finally came to a close as the great state of florida reported that its long, long, long process of tallying up the votes of finally complete and the winner in the state of florida was, hit the board, president obama. according to florida's results, it was about as close as you could get without triggering an automatic recount. president obama winning 50% of the vote compared to 49% for mitt romney. so president obama with 332 electoral vote. ultimately the decisive thing ant florida was not who florida voted for. it was the state becoming a showcase for the unreasonable lengths of time people had to go

to to exercise their right to vote. florida's republican-controlled legislature cut down early voting days by almost half. rick scott broke with even republican tradition and refused to extend early voting hours even in the face of six to seven-hour lines in the state. now that florida's electoral college votes have been allocate ed, he's ready to address the state's problem saying "i have asked the secretary of state to review this and report on ways to improve the process after all the races are certified. as part of this, he will meet with county election supervisors, especially those who ran elections where voters experienced long lines of four hours or more." so waiting in line for four hours did you want trigger any special attention. you have to be more than four hours for that. when's the last time you waited in line outdoors for four hours for something? when's the last time you thought

it would be okay to ask your grandmother to wait in line outdoors for four hours for something? but as bad as florida was and is, there were states that did even worse. including one state where i went to bed thinking the senate race was settled only to wake up it may not be over. that's coming up next. and one wedding, 2 kids, 43 bottles of olay total effects many birthdays later, still looks amazing. thanks to the trusted performance of olay.

so in the final account, this is the electoral map, jeff flake's race in arizona was one of the few contested senate seats that was in reach for the republicans, but it appeared the republicans actually did reach. but today the democrat in that race, former surgeon general richard carmona, kind of essentially hinted at not conceding that race. his campaign today, saying they might have declared defeat too soon. they are now watching the vote count in arizona very closely. as of this weekend, arizona had not counted roughly one in every four votes that were cast in the election. still, half a million votes left to count and a bunch of close races in the state are hanging in the balance. this botched election in arizona, which is still not over, and the remarkable, potential unconcessioned u.s. senate race by richard carmona, may ultimately go back to this guy.

>> as you know, 250 citizens of this valley, this state, came to me. asking me as the head of a law enforcement agency to look into president obama's birth certificate as released by the white house in april of 2011 on the official white house website. as we suspect, it is a fraudulent document. >> sheriff joe arpaio, reviewing the results of his tax high payer funded investigation into president obama's birth certificate. the sheriff, and a prominent mitt romney endorser, sent his cold-case posse to hawaii, where they discovered the president's birth certificate is a fraud! sheriff arpaio is a cartoon, but he is also a very visible

political force republican arizona politics. a big backer of anti immigrant papers, please, law, he does everything he can to try to make himself nationally famous. to moving prisoners out of jail and putting them instead in tents in the desert. forcing prisoners to wear pink underwear, because it amuses him as sheriff to milwaukee them do that. he makes them eat baloney sandwiches with meat so rotten that the meat has turned green. and then the cold case posse to hawaii. some love old sheriff joe and his traveling circus, but some people don't and this year a group of high school kids took on sheriff joe arpaio. these 100 or so teenagers set up a voter registration drive called addo arpaio. they registered 30,000 people

and beaten their goal. aimed at 30,000, and got over 34,000. just a triumph of civic activism of these kids, until the realities of democracy in maricopa county took old. this is the same arizona county that told spanish speaking voters that election day was november 8th, which is two days after the election. maricopa county says it was just an accident, and we found the county made the same exact spanish language accident on a book mark sent out to voters, telling them when to vote and reduced the number of polling places this year, in maricopa, they closed a third of the polling places opened in 2008, when they had long lines too. voters would likely to have encountered big long lines whether there were fewer places to vote. and what many of the new voters voting found specifically their

names were not on voter rolls, even though they registered. as a result, they got forced in voting for? a far from reliable way, a provisional ballot and that's how arizona found themselves in the national headlines, days after the election, arizona still has a mountain of ballots to count, a mini mountain of provisional ballots, many by first time minority voters, like the 30,000 people plus signed up by the high school kids in adios arpaio. they have been marching in the streets of peeks ever since. they say they will stay there until every vote in that office is counted. meanwhile, activists in phoenix are desperately working a phone bank. they are trying to reach all of the voters they reached before the election, so they can figure out who got forced into voting one of these provisional ballots? if they made you vote that way, you only have until wednesday of this week to go back to the county office and prove you voted rightfully.

otherwise your provisional ballot will get thrown out, this is not only maricopa county's problem. you find boxes of uncounted votes across arizona. depending on how you figure it, the nation woke up with half a dozen undecided congressional races, half in arizona. early on, activists asked for help from the justice department. the next election matters as much as this one, so arizona needs to get their act together and put this right. it does seem they are starting to get a little notice, starting with richard carmona's senate campaign saying, hey, wait a minute, maybe this thing is not over, we will make sure they count every vote. this weekend, harry reid, the senate majority leader signalled he was taking this seriously, putting out a statement called for all of the votes in arizona to be counted properly, accurately, and equally, senator reid pointing out that just in maricopa county alone, the uncounted votes represent a major portion of the total votes

cast in arizona. florida only finished counting its votes for president this weekend. after floridians waited in some cases eight plus hours to vote. because florida is florida, and what it means in american national politics, florida will probably be exhibit "a" for what is wrong with the election system on purpose. it's wrong on purpose, because we know what needs to be done to fix the problems and it's not being done on purpose. but arizona, right now, is a hot and heavy contender ats